This is one of my favorite poems, written by a young man who was a fighter pilot in WWII. He never made it home.

My grandfather fought in WWII as an army medic and he died just a few years ago, at age 85. Today, I remember him and all the other's like him who fight our wars for us. My grandfather came home, but so many young men did not. Canadian, American, British, German, Japanese...doesn't matter what side they fought on or even why they were fighting - they were all people first, with families who loved them and longed for their safe return. My family was blessed.

Okay, I'm officially obsessed and I know it. There is nothing quite like the feeling of falling in love with new characters. This does not mean I'm moving on from my other current love, which is still Hermione Granger / Severus Snape. *for those of you who don't really know me, I seem to have a thing for seriously non-canon and wildly age inappropriate pairings between older, misunderstood men and younger - but not pedophilia young! - woman they know / teach / work with...* In otherwords, YES, I am still working on the next chapter of Finding His Voice and the two co-authored stories as well. New chapters for all three will be up soon, I promise.

Anyways, I've been going to speech therapy again a couple of times a week and spend a lot of time on the bus, which is where I've been scratching out my Firefly Jayne/River stories. I cannot do SS/HG unless I am in front of the computer for some reason, and River/Jayne needs to be written out in lined paper with a blue ink pen - how weird is that?

They're not long - I think the largest is almost 2000 words - but I'm enjoying writing them.

If any of you care to read them, they are posted here and should be read in consecutive order.

Okay, I admit that I am a CSI fan and have been from year one. When CSI first started, I watched it with the red hot passion of a thousand burning nuns...hehe...and my love stayed strong 'til about halfway through year three. Year Four almost killed my CSI love, because the writer's took what I most loved about the show and totally screwed it up - what little character history we'd been given was totally ignored, they started making caricatures of some of the cast and the general quality of the scripts went down, among other things. (During this time, continuing unabated right thru tonight's episode, my hate for Catherine continues to grow at a frightening exponential rate.)

I continued watching the show, though, despite a completely un-inspired fourth season as well. The forth season, in particular, was awful. I think there were maybe three or four truly good episodes the entire year and the rest were mediocre at best. Quite honestly, I taped the eps and watched them on the weekend and watched the Apprentice instead. That's how bad it was.

I watched all through last season as well - season five. The shows got a bit better, but there was still plenty of character assasination still going on. The writer's continued ignoring members of the original ensemble in favor of focusing on secondary characters and Catherine, the ex-stripper-cokehead-illegitimate daughter of a murdering bastard-single mom-widow-bitch-with the truly fucked up lips- extraordinaire. The only reason I continued watching was due to residual love built up the first two seasons and the fact that I truly, truly love George Eads. LOL. His character, Nick Stokes, was my weekly dish of HOT, even if he had been so far regulated to the sub-sub-basement of the show that some episodes were blink-and-you-miss-him.

And then, we got SNAKES. A strong Nick-episode. And then Quentin Tarantino and the awesome Grave Danger season finale. FINALLY, some light on the horizon. I wondered all summer if the writers and directors of CSI would actually have the brains to build on that one episode, have continuity and build on the awesomeness that is Tarantino.

My answer so far for Season Six? YES. I feel like I could possibly have my CSI back - the show that I loved and wouldn't miss for anything. And I am excited.

I LOVE the fact that the team is working as a team again, not just back from their ill-advised split last year, but working toegether on actual cases. I love the fact that there is continuity this year, that Sara has bounced back from the alchy-depressed dud she was the last few seasons and is starting to be SARA again! Warrick has given up on his ill-advised flirting with Catherine-the-hopefully-soon-to-be-dead-ex-CSI (I thought they'd make a good couple the first two years, but season three I started changing my mind and Season Four totally killed that character for me) and got married. Grissom is being all Grissomy again and the flirting with Sara is back - not as strong as it was - but it makes my poor little shipper heart sing.

Best of all - NICK. TONS OF NICK! OMG - tonight's show was all about NICK, and George Eads knocked it right out of the ball park. That man can act, and he's been so under-utilized for so long it's wonderful seeing the writer's and director's finally using him. All it took was Tarantino to show them what a jewel they had in him.

SQUEEEE~ I'm rambling like the fangirl I am. I haven't been this excited about CSI for TWO-and-a-HALF years, people.

You scored as Simon Tam. The Doctor. You have a gift for healing that goes beyond education. You took an oath to do no harm, even when your patients have tried to kill you. You are out of place where you are, being used to refined society. However, if you take that stick out of your arse you should be fine.

I'm so bad. I'm working on Finding His Voice as well, and hope to have it finished soon. And ZAMBI - we need to get going on WIB!!!!! Email me, woman!

Anyway, as I'm sure is obvious from the last couple of days, I have now officially jumped aboard the Firefly bandwagon. I'd been attempting to steer clear for months -ever since I bought Season 1 - but the movie sucked me right in and infested me with plot bunnies.

So, for those of you who like Firefly - here are two new stories. For those of you who don't know what Firefly is, I suggest you buy the DVDs and see the movie Serenity. It will complete your life - trust me...LOL.

What a great movie! It hit me in the opening scene how much I really, really miss seeing these guys on my TV every week. *sniffle*

The audience was packed full of hardcore fans, so it was a great time - it's so nice when everyone 'gets' the characters. I was surprised by a couple of the plot developments (don't want to spoil it for anyone, but HOLY MOLY!!)

"I am a leaf on the ..." *Gah! Sniffle! Why, oh why!!!!*

I think I'm in love with Captain Mal, although Dr. Simon runs a close second - nice looking men, the two of them. And, of course, I love Jayne - in a strictly platonic he's just so dumb kinda way.

I really hope the movie does well and we get the other two the cast has already been contracted too.

If you've never seen FIREFLY, buy the DVDs and watch the show - I guarantee that you'll fall in love with it. And GO SEE THE MOVIE! SERENITY is what I think Star Wars 1 - 3 (not the originals, for those who still get confused by that) coulda, shoulda, woulda been - if George Lucas had stuck to the original premise of cowboys in space.

In short - go see SERENITY! Buy FIREFLY on DVD! FALL IN LOVE with the characters and the story!!!

The only thing I was disappointed about with the movie was that my beloved Firefly theme song from the show did not make an appearance.

Woot! Woot!! Woot!!! I am so very excited - come hell or high water, I am seeing that movie this weekend. I've been watching all my Firefly eps. on DVD to get me all prepped, and have got the kiddies hooked, which will make it easier to convince hubby we must go to the movies. I just hope they haven't mucked around with the theme song, because I plan on squaking along to it - or, at the very least - lighting a BIC and shedding a tear or two over the bliss of having new Mal! New Simon! New Jayne! The trailer looks fan-frikking-tastic, so I'm really excited.

We almost have the upstairs finished - painting is all done, most of the flooring is in, and we'll get the flooring done this weekend. After that, we need to cut and put in the three-quarter inch trim and paint all the upstairs trim as well, and voila! Finito. I can not wait, because I am sick and tired of all the painting and pounding and cutting and sawdust.

Finally started writing a bit again - not much, mind, as my time is tight until the house is done and the cold weather arrives - but enough that I actually feel pretty darn happy about it. I also had a request from a very nice person who read Heart With No Companion to have it translated into CHINESE. How cool is that? I was shocked and pleasantly surprised and very, very honoured. One of my other stories, Fruit Loops, has been translated into Polish, and several of my CSI fics have been translated to German, so I feel very multi-culturally diverse. LOL.

I've started speech therapy again, which is a pain in the...throat. I swear, if God had wanted my voice box up in my nose, that's where he would have put it. I could do without all the manipulation. I could also do with the big ass scopes they keep trying to stick down my throat. My gag reflex is shot!

Thing One turned NINE yesterday. Boo hoo!

Over the next few days I will be trying to catch up on posts and see what I've been missing, but I think I'm almost back - for those of you who still care.

Okay, so, I'm ripping my house apart. We are on a MASSIVE re-vitalization spree, which includes: ripping out all carpets, putting in nice, new, lamentate flooring in teak and painting the master bedroom/ ensuite (which has been the white cheapo builders paint since we bought the house 6 years ago). My office was ripped apart for about 7 days, waiting the lamenate to go in, until we realized we might not have enough laminate to do the office and the master bedroom, but we did have enough to do all the master bedroom for sure. So, this weekend, we moved everything back into the (rugless) office and moved as much as we could out of the master bedroom. Before we can put the new floor in, the darn thing must be painted so we decided what colors we wanted, and I spent the entire day today painting the accessible walls in the bedroom. Hubby is in there right now moving furniture and several of his guitars to the side of the rooms newly painted, to free up room and space for me to paint the rest of it tommorrow.

In the meantime, I set my computer back up yesterday so I could see what's going on and say hello to everybody. Of course, we've moved some bedroom furniture into the office, so actually getting to the computer was a little nutso. I didn't realize I was such a contortionist, but desperation for email and internet access makes one do impossible things!

We got all new flooring in my daughter's room the week before last, and it looks marvellous - so wonderful to get that ratty-ass carpet out of there! Her room is actually very organized for the time being (keeping fingers crossed) and I'm hoping that with the painting and new-floor-laying (mind out of gutter!) in our bedroom, hubby will finally find a new place to store his myriad boxed guitars. Last count, there were over 20 of them, leaning against the walls in our bedroom, all stored in brown box cases, which, I can assure you, is not overly attractive. We are painting the bedroom an applesauce brown and a beautiful light turqoisey-blue. All ways facing in a north / south direction are blue, all walls facing east / west are applesauce. It looks lovely and geometric, and my father will probably hate it when he sees what we're doing. I'm hoping to have the room finished tomorrow, and then we shall rip out the carpet and hopefully start installing the floor. I suspect it will take us until Sunday to get that room completed, as it is quite large - 28 feet in width by 13.5 feet in length, not counting the ensuite bathroom. It's a huge room, and will look very nice when it's no longer white.

The office will, I suppose, have to wait until the following week - when we can once again move everything out. We'll probably have to buy more wood, which will suck.

Other than home renovations from hell, nothing else is new. Kiddies are back at school and enjoying themselves, although youngest won't admit it. Hubby bought an old pinball game from 1977 which still works, which the kids are loving. Thing One celebrates his 9th birthday next Tuesday, and we are talking him and a couple of his buddies to the fair on Saturday to celebrate. I still sound like a Troll.

I swear, as soon as these renovations are finished, I will sit in front of my computer for hours a day just to catch up. I promise!

Miss talking to you all - if you happen to see me online the next couple of days, please say hi!

I was out on a houseboat when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and remained unaware of the devestation that had occured there until last Thursday, when we finally got back to the Marina and headed home. I have been glued to the TV ever since.

What a complete tragedy. There are just no words to describe it, and I just learned today on CNN that 25,000 body bags have been shipped to Louisiana. 25,000!

As a Canadian, the only bad weather I understand is 'blizzard' and perhaps, 'avalanche' - hurricanes such as this are just outside my personal realm of possibility. I find it horrifying. I find it even more horrifying that more people have died / will die after the hurricane than died during the hurricane, due to lack of food, water and basic care. I do not understand how, in this day and age, in North America (not just the US!) that tragedies of this nature can occur. The majority of people who died didn't die because of the storm, they died because their government got so tied up in red tape that the citizens said government was suppossed to be protecting came in last place.

It makes me question what we even have government for. And I say this as a Canadian, as an indictment against my own government as well. Were was the help these people needed? Why did it arrive so late? How come other countries seemed so slow to step up to the plate and offer support? Americans have ALWAYS been there to support every other country in the world during times of tragedy - why weren't we as quick to offer them help?

The more I see on the news the more saddened I am. I've read some reports that state the Hurrican was a judgement of God against the States for war in Iraq/ support of the Israeli pull-out at GAZA/ judgement against the homosexual 'regime' (in other words, a modern day Soddom and Gommorah).

You know what I say to that? Bullshit. Bullshit and shut the fuck up. My God is a loving God, who doesn't go around condemning hundred of thousands of people to homelessness because of something their government does, or because there are gay people living amongst them. My God wouldn't let children, and mothers and fathers and aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, grandparents drown in their own attics because of something happening in Isreal.

Nothing could have been done to prevent Katrina, but a helluva lot could have and should have been done to prevent everything that happened afterwards. There are probably thousands of people dead because of 'red-tape'; because the government on ALL LEVELS wasn't prepared and than were too fucking slow reacting.

My heart goes out to all the people who have suffered during this tragedy. I wish I could do more than donate to the Red Cross. I promise if I ever run across the head of FEMA - Michael whateverthehellhislastnameis - I will kick his ass from here to eternity.

and hubby bought me the complete Season One set on DVD, released yesterday. How awesome is that? I loved the Muppets when I was a kid - we never missed a show - and now to be able to watch them with my kids is just wonderful.

In other news, I apologize for my lack of presence lately. It's been insane around here with summer vacation, and my grandmother (who is 86) came to live with us for a month and a half, while waiting for my parents house to be ready, so I just haven't had any time to do anything. Still don't, really - hence posting at 1:15 am! LOL.

The heat has been brutal here - we've had 37 days of plus 90 heat so far since mid-June, which beats all sorts of records - and we've been painting all the outside trim in the very early mornings / very late evenings when the temp. won't kill us. I am looking forward to getting two-plus years of neglected housework / repair done, the kiddies getting back to school and my grandmother settled back with my parents. It will be nice to be able to get on the computer at more normal times!

Ramblings: saw The Dukes of Hazzards today with the kids (matinee show). It wasn't great. *sigh* The kids liked it, but I was left yearning for Tom Wopat. What is the deal with Jessica Simpson? I don't understand how she became famous. Honest to goodness, the girl sounds like canned Spam would sound like if Spam could sing. She's so phoney, she's not even real ham, people! However, I love Willie Nelson, so it was great to see him on screen. The best thing about the movie was the preview for The Corpse Bride, coming in September. WOOT! Love Tim Burton, stop-gap animation and Johnny Depp!

Lost yet another snake to the darned cryptosporidium, just when I thought I might be passed all that. On a brighter note, though, I have some more viable crested gecko eggs to add to the incubator - if they all hatch, I'll have 6 new babies by the end of September.

Some idiot in a pick-up honked and made a lewd preposition to my TEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER and her friend today, as we were walking from the movies to the beach for a swim. The girls were a bit behind me, as I was up ahead walking with the boys, so I don't think he realized a mother was present. I scared the shit out of him when I chased him down to the lights (thankfully red) and proceeded to point out what a scum-sucking pedophiliac skum-bucket he was. I swear I would have killed him if he'd had the balls to get out of his truck. Ass monkey.

I cried yesterday when I heard that Dana Reeves, Christopher Reeves wife, if battling lung cancer. I admire her more than I can say, and I loved Christopher Reeves, and I just feel so bad for her that she's got something else awful to deal with after everything else she's had to go through. Sometimes life sucks.

I miss talking to everybody, and I'm so behind on reading lj's of my friends, I doubt I'll ever get caught up. Don't hate me - I'll do my best, and things will get better in September. I hope.

...because I am excessively proud of my new wood flooring, and want to show off my handiwork. Also, thought I'd display a pic of my new fishie tank and my lovely thyroidectomy scar, just to be gross, but can't figure out how to do this! Argh. Frustration sets in.

In other news, happy 4th of July to all my American friends. Happy belated Canada day to all my fellow Canadians. I love long weekends.

I could still hear the music from the Live 8 Concert taking place at Park Place in Barrie, ON, today. The house I live in is just on the other side of the highway, about 3 - 4 miles as the crow flies to my backyard. The kids were playing in the inflatable pool we had bought for them a couple years ago, and I was sitting on the patio pushing my luck by drinking a Rasberry Twister with Vodka, despite the fact I: a) don't normally drink and b) am on pain meds and bacteria-killers from my recent fight with a butter knife. (I lost.)

I remember so clearly watching the first Live Aid concert on TV 20 years ago, when I was fifteen. I donated a whole two weeks worth of my salary from my summer job to the cause of feeding starving children in Ethiopia. I have the Live Aid concert on DVD.

So, why wasn't I more excited about this concert? The ideals are still the same, only blown up on a much larger scale. The cause is good. Ending poverty world-wide is something I can support, so ... why the ennui about this concert happening practically in my backyard?

I hate to say it, but I think it's because I'm older and more cynical than I was twenty years ago. Way more cynical. There are people starving here and living in poverty right in my own country; children who are going to school (when they can manage it) day after day without having had a decent breakfast first, with nothing for lunch, and dinner just a hopeful dream. Why can't we focus on getting rid of poverty right here in Canada first, before we start looking to end it in other countries - in other countries that DO NOT have stable governments, where there is no guarantee that any of the promised aid will even reach the people it is suppossed to reach? Where it could end up in the coffers of some warlord, or some army faction?

I am not saying not to send aid to other countries, of course. Some of the things that are happening in Africa reflect badly on the entire world as a whole - in this day and age, people shouldn't be starving. People shouldn't be dying of AIDS and other diseases that the western world has drugs to either control or cure...it's a travesty. All I'm saying is: what about the people in my own country who need help just to put food in their bellies? Who is going to aid them?

Okay, so the Great Home Renovation, 2005, is almost complete. Yes - the floor is in, and all the new trim is up and it looks fantastic, even though I still need to paint it. (Trim, not floor).

So, anyways, my hubby, Sunday afternoon, said now the floor is done I can set up my 55 gal. hex tank with tropical fishies. "Yay!" says I. My SIL (who was down visiting with her hubby - Mr. Fixit! - and two kids) and I decide to go to the fish emporium and get some fish. We fill the tank, get it cycling, buy some Bio-Bac to add to the water to introduce good fishie bacteria and some Start Right so we can put fish in right away, and we buy some fish. So, now I've got this beautiful tank going with fancy guppies, sailfin mollies, sword tails, neon tetras and one African Dwarf Frog. I love it.

The damned rotten luck? After we got the tank all set up and the fishies added, I decided to start the barbeque and do up frozen hamburgers for the kids. I tried to seperate one hamburger from another with a butter knife (Stupid. Don't try that at home!) and the knife slipped and slice my hand from the crease between thumb and forefinger about a 1/4 way into the palm. Hurt like hell, but didn't bleed that much, so I didn't go to hospital - just wrapped it up and suffered in silence. Anyway, Monday night comes - I go to change the dressing and my hand is throbbing and red and actually quite disgusting looking around the cut. My forefinger and thumb are completely numb. I do nothing.

The next night, the same - only worse. I have pins and needles in my hand and zero movement in thumb and forefinger. Hubby takes me to med center right away - cut is severely infected, and not only that, the doctor thinks I might have sliced a tendon. So, yesterday, I go see a plastic surgeon - tendon is not sliced, but I have cut a lot of the nerves. Long story short? Today at 12:30 I am going for day surgery to repair the nerves, which will be followed by a month of wearing a brace and then, after the stitches are gone and the skin healed - physiotherapy.

Makes typing anything a bitch. WOrst thing? It's not even an interesting story to tell - I mean, come on, "Cut myself with a butter knife?" Blah.